The University of Pécs Among the Elite of Green Universities

08 January 2019

The University of Pécs was ranked 140th on the list of UI GreenMetric University Ranking comparing 719 higher education institutions from all over the world. The press release published on 19 December 2018 in Depok, Indonesia shows that with 39 places better than last year, the University of Pécs is the second “greenest” university of Hungary according to this ranking.

Universitas Indonesia (UI) initiated a world university rankings in 2010, later known as UI GreenMetric World University Rankings, to measure campus sustainability efforts. It is the first and only university ranking in the world that measures the commitment of participating universities in developing an ‘environmentally friendly’ infrastructure. The GreenMetric rankings look at 39 indicators in six categories: setting and infrastructure, energy and climate change, waste, water, transportation and education. The methodology examines the size of the area on campus covered by forest or planted vegetation, the budget for sustainability efforts, the renewable energy sources and the recycling program, the use of water efficient appliances and other efforts made for a greener environment. Therefore, the idea of a “Green University” is a complex system, including establishing the built environment, environmentally conscious operation as well as the attitudes, and creating the educational and research background for them.

While in the first ranking 95 universities participated from 35 countries, this year 719 universities from 81 countries took part. The development of the University of Pécs based on these objective indicators is quite visible, while in 2016 it achieved 355th place, in 2017 jumping to the 179th place. This year, the first University of Hungary, the University of Pécs managed to secure the even more prestigious 140th place.

According to the list, the “greenest” university of the world – keeping its first position from last year– is the Wageningen University & Research (Netherlands), followed by the University of Nottingham (United Kingdom) and the University of California Davis (USA).